Meeting Abstract
Environmental estrogens pose serious threats to ecosystem and population health. These pollutants can impact organisms in numerous ways, from disrupting critical hormonal pathways to changing reproductive behaviors. The influence of environmental estrogens on gut homeostasis is poorly studied, but can potentially have negative impacts on individual health and fitness via their effect on the gut microbial community. To quantify the influence of environmental estrogens (i.e. xenoestrogens) on the diversity and abundance of gut microbiota, twenty-three hatchling American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) were randomly allocated across three treatment groups that differed in estradiol intake over ten weeks. These treatments included individuals that were provided rations supplemented with 1 mL/kg of peanut oil (control group), 0.5 µg/kg estradiol-17ß (low treatment), or 1 µg/kg estradiol-17ß (high treatment). These doses are similar to the toxicity threshholds for other freshwater organsims and mimic those found at ecologically relevant concentrations. We predicted that xenoestrogen exposure would increase microbial diversity and abundance within the digestive tract, and that the effect of xenoestrogens on the gut microbial community would be dose-dependent. Microbial samples were collected at the end of the study and were elucidated using 16S rRNA gene-sequencing. Findings from this study will provide insight into the effects of exogenous estrogen exposure on the internal microbial community and aid in understanding the consequences of exposure on health.
